WHO IS THIS ASSIGNMENT FOR?
Folks who did not run a discussion on Grass Dancer need to write this paper. Others can choose to do it for extra credit.

GOAL OF PAPER
The goal of the paper is for you to creatively and critically explore some of the themes in the novel. Push your self with your analysis and creativity. Both apply for both essays and stories.

HOW LONG, BOLT? Five pages. Double spaced, but no fat fonts or oasis-like spaces. MOST IMPORTANTLY, I want a genuine and probing effort, not a superficial treatment.

TITLE: Create an original title for the essays as well as stories. Titles can help shape the meaning of a piece.

STAPLE? TYPE?: Heck yea!

DUE WHEN? Next class. Or a week from today via email.

ESSAY OPTION
1) In “Grass Dancer” spirits are present amongst the living. Analyze three examples of this and consider what it suggests about Sioux culture.

2) In an essay called “Reinventing the Enemy’s Language,” Susan Power wrote one reason she was compelled to write was because she “could sort through the conflicting values and belief systems I was taught by being raised with one foot in the Indian world and the other in mainstream society.” In your essay, demonstrate how specific themes, characters and plotlines are an example of this negotiation. What does Power seem to take away from the encounters between the Indian and “American” worlds?

3) Jeanette McVay comes to the Sioux reservation with many preconceived notions. Compare your preconceived notions with Jeanette’s and then try to deconstruct their genesis and some potential problems with these notions.

(An interesting example is when she attempts to help her students’ get in touch with “their culture” by having them read white writer James Fenimore Cooper who wrote “Last of the Mohicans.” Instead Frank asks, “Can’t we read some of that Vine Delora?”)

4) Red Dress says of Father Frambois, “We were already a degraded people, whom he intended to elevate, single-handedly into the radiant realm of civilization.” Write an essay about how Red Dress, and the Sioux, defy Father Frambois’ assumptions, as well as the irony in his statement.

5) Explore the paradox of fate and individualism in the life of Anna/Mercury Thunder.

6) Explore “Grass Dancer” as a depiction of the ongoing vitality of the Sioux culture, even as it collides and merges with other cultures. Be specific in your references.

STORY OPTION
Note stories must specifically and clearly explore themes AND the style or structure of "Grass Dancer." Remember Susan Power's lyrical attention to detail and subtle sense of the absurd.

1) Write a story with a narration from the living followed with a narration from the dead. Allow the voice from the dead to illuminate the story told by the voice from the living. Together the narrations should unpack cultural and individual meanings. (Cultural references do not have to be Indian. Perhaps you can draw on your own.)

2) Write a story in the voice of one or two of the characters from "Grass Dancer," exploring the continuation of their story. For example, be Charlene beginning her life in Chicago. Or Frank learning to be a healer. Or Ghost Horse and Red Dress confronting each other in the spirit world. Or skeptical Evie dying and meeting her dead son Duane for the first time.

3) In "Grass Dancer," time keeps going for the dead. Use this as an opportunity to imagine someone you know who has passed carrying on in the spirit world, and maybe interacting with the living.

4) The dress that Margaret Many Wounds asked Harley to liberate was recreated by Lydia in the last chapter. It was to be part of a plan to communicate with her son, Harley. With this in mind, imagine an object with great cultural and individual meaning (possibly contentious meaning) and build a story depicting, in some sense, its "liberation." (Remember, you can draw on your own culture, as long as you explore Power's themes.)

Last Edited JB on 7-Nov-2003 11:14 PM